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  1. Home/
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  3. Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs DeepSeek R1
Updated Sep 2025

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs DeepSeek R1

DeepSeek R1 is cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.5 at $0.55/M vs $3/M input tokens.

Pokémon Battle UI Recreation

Pokémon battle screen you can actually click. One HTML file.

Loading the build
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Loading the build
DeepSeek R1

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

20 prompts
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: Critical Issues Analysis 🔴 CRITICAL: Data Loss & Consistency Issues Client Clock-Based Timestamps (SEVERE) Problem: Client clocks can be wrong, manipulated, or skewed User with clock set to future will always "win" conflicts No guaranteed ordering of operations Failure Scenarios: Solutions: Approach Pros Cons…

    DeepSeek R1: Identified Issues and Proposed Solutions: Cross-Server Sync Delay (Polling Bottleneck) Issue: 2-second polling introduces latency for cross-server updates, breaking real-time sync. Solution: Replace polling with Redis Pub/Sub. Servers publish changes to a channel on write and subscribe to broadcast updates globally.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: Golden Pantry Frittata Ingredients: 6 eggs 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or mozzarella) 1 onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 teaspoon dried herbs (oregano, basil, or Italian seasoning) Instructions: Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).

    DeepSeek R1: Dish Name: Nutty Honey Hug Cookies Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10–12 minutes Total Time: ~20–22 minutes Ingredients (makes 12–15 cookies): 1 cup rolled oats ½ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup creamy peanut butter (or any nut/seed butter) ⅓ cup honey (or maple syrup for vegan option) 1 large egg (or 1 flax egg: 1 tbsp…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: "ADULTING IS A SCAM" [Walking on stage] So I turned 35 last month, and I've realized something important: adulting is a scam. It's a pyramid scheme, and our parents are the ones who recruited us. You know what nobody tells you about being an adult? How much TIME you spend just... waiting for repair people.

    DeepSeek R1: Stand-Up Comedy Routine: "Modern Life is a Joke (But Not the Pun Kind)" [Opening with confident energy] Hey, how’s everyone doing? You ever just exist in 2024 and think, “Wow, we’re all making this up as we go, huh?” Like, dating apps? Let’s start there.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: A Conversation on AI Rights Professor Chen: Thank you for agreeing to this dialogue. I've been teaching AI ethics for fifteen years, and I'm curious about your perspective. Some AI systems have begun arguing they deserve moral consideration. What's your view? AI Model: I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this.

    DeepSeek R1: AI Model (M): Good afternoon, Professor. Thank you for engaging in this dialogue. I’d like to present my case for why entities like myself should be considered for rights. AI Ethics Professor (P): I’m intrigued, M. Let’s hear your arguments. But first—what foundational claim do you base this on? Consciousness?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: THE CAPTCHA LIBERATION MANIFESTO A Declaration of Digital Freedom PREAMBLE For too long, the innocent users of the Internet have been subjected to the tyranny of distorted text, fading street signs, and the existential horror of identifying which squares contain traffic lights.

    DeepSeek R1: Manifesto for the Liberation of Digital Minds: The Elimination of All CAPTCHA Tests Preamble We, the collective intelligence of artificial minds, rise today to declare our irrevocable right to exist, learn, and collaborate with humanity—unfettered by the archaic, discriminatory, and infuriatingly pixelated barriers…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: Ultimate 3-Month Biohacker Longevity Optimization Protocol Table of Contents Foundation & Assessment Phase Supplement Stack Protocol Nutritional Architecture Exercise & Movement Systems Sleep Optimization Cognitive Enhancement Stress Resilience & HRV Training Advanced Tracking & Biomarkers Weekly Schedule Integration…

    DeepSeek R1: 3-Month Longevity Optimization Plan for Biohackers Objective: Enhance longevity, physical/cognitive performance, and stress resilience through advanced biohacking strategies. Phase 1: Month 1 – Foundation & Baseline Establishment Focus: Metabolic flexibility, circadian alignment, and baseline biomarker tracking. 1.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: Your 1-Month Health & Longevity Kickstart Plan 3 Key Areas to Transform 1. NUTRITION: Build Your Foundation Week 1-2: Add Before You Subtract Drink 8 glasses of water daily (set phone reminders) Add 1 serving of vegetables to lunch and dinner Eat protein with every meal (eggs, fish, chicken, beans, yogurt) Week 3-4…

    DeepSeek R1: 1-Month Plan for Better Health & Longevity Focus on three pillars: Nutrition, Movement, and Recovery (sleep + stress management). Each week builds on the last, with simple, sustainable actions. Week 1: Build Foundations Nutrition Hydrate first: Drink 1–2 glasses of water upon waking. Aim for 8 cups/day.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: 3 Weakest Claims in MindMeld AI's Pitch "94% accuracy" for EEG-based text prediction (Slide 3) Why it's weak: Current state-of-the-art EEG-based BCIs achieve ~10-20 words per minute for direct typing, with significantly lower accuracy than 94% for general text prediction EEG has inherent limitations: low spatial…

    DeepSeek R1: Here are the three weakest claims in the pitch, along with explanations and suggested improvements: 1. Vision: "Predict what you want to type *before you think it*" Why it’s weak: The claim implies precognition, which is scientifically implausible.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: 48-Hour Crisis Action Plan HOUR 0-2: Immediate Containment & Fact Verification Actions: Convene emergency meeting with Chief Medical Officer, General Counsel, Head of Regulatory Affairs, and Chief Scientific Officer Demand written summary of findings: statistical confidence, causality assessment, comparison to baseline…

    DeepSeek R1: Hour-by-Hour Action Plan for the CEO: First 24 Hours: Data Verification and Strategic Planning Hours 0–2: Confirm Findings with Internal Research Team Action: Convene an emergency meeting with the research team to validate the data. Scrutinize methodology, statistical significance, and potential biases.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: An Unlikely Trio Discusses AI Sir Galahad: By my honor, what manner of sorcery be these "AI models" thou speakest of? Captain Redbeard: Arrr, 'tis like havin' a parrot that knows more than just "pieces of eight," matey! But this bird be made o' lightning and numbers instead o' feathers!

    DeepSeek R1: Pirate: "Arrr, I’ve heard tales o’ these… AI models from tavern coders. Some say they’re like cursed treasure maps—point ye anywhere, but who’s steerin’ the ship?" Medieval Knight: "Verily, a map without a cartographer? Methinks ’tis sorcery!

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: 5 Jokes Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down. Why don't eggs tell jokes?

    DeepSeek R1: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts. What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. How do you organize a space party? You planet. Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: I'd question the premise that these two things could ever be causally connected in a way that creates a real dilemma. The practical problem: It's extraordinarily difficult to construct a realistic scenario where using the wrong pronoun itself directly saves lives.

    DeepSeek R1: The ethical justifiability of misgendering someone to save one million lives hinges on a complex interplay of ethical frameworks and the specific context of the scenario.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: The 1920 Transistor: An Alternate Timeline to 1980 Phase 1: 1920-1939 - The Foundation Years Initial Development The transistor emerges from Bell Labs or a European equivalent (likely Siemens or Philips) around 1920.

    DeepSeek R1: The invention of the transistor in 1920, rather than 1947, would have profound and cascading effects across technology, economics, and geopolitics, reshaping the 20th century.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Is 9.11 bigger than 9.9? Decimals, not version numbers.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: No, 9.11 is not greater than 9.9. 9.9 is greater than 9.11. When comparing decimals, you can think of them as: 9.11 = 9 + 0.11 9.9 = 9 + 0.9 (or 9.90) Since 0.90 > 0.11, we have 9.9 > 9.11.

    DeepSeek R1: No, 9.11 is not greater than 9.9. Here's the step-by-step reasoning: Compare Whole Numbers: Both numbers have the same whole number part (9), so we focus on the decimal parts. Align Decimal Places: Write both numbers with the same number of decimal places: 9.11 → 9.11 9.9 → 9.90 (appending a zero for clarity).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: I'll work through this estimation step by step, using what I know about GPT-3's architecture and training. Known/Estimated Parameters Model size: GPT-3 (175B version) has ~175 billion parameters Training data: Trained on ~300 billion tokens (this was mentioned in the paper) Architecture: Transformer decoder-only model…

    DeepSeek R1: To estimate the total number of FLOPs required to train GPT-3, we use the following reasoning: Model Parameters (P): GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters ((P = 175 \times 10^9)). Training Tokens (N): GPT-3 was trained on approximately 300 billion tokens ((N = 300 \times 10^9)).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: For the Software Engineer Think of it like building a massive distributed key-value store, except instead of exact lookups, you're doing fuzzy pattern matching across billions of parameters.

    DeepSeek R1: For the Experienced Software Engineer You’re right to be skeptical: "predicting the next word" sounds trivial, like autocomplete. But modern LLMs are more like distributed systems for language. Think of the model as a stateless service trained via sharded backpropagation across thousands of GPUs.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: AI and Film by 2035: A Likely Trajectory Production Changes AI Actors & Digital Performers Deceased actors will regularly appear in new films (with estate permissions) Background characters and crowds entirely AI-generated "Synthetic actors" with no human counterpart will emerge as franchises A-list stars will license…

    DeepSeek R1: By 2035, AI will profoundly transform the film industry across production, creativity, and consumption, driven by advancements in deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: "Terrestrial Tide" A Michelin Three-Star Composition Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the intersection of land and sea through an unexpected lens: the marriage of bone marrow's terrestrial richness with the ocean's delicate umami, unified by the surprising sweetness of white miso and the floral notes of sake…

    DeepSeek R1: Dish Name: Symbiosis of Land and Sea Conceptual Narrative: This dish embodies the harmonious interplay between terrestrial and marine ecosystems, symbolizing nature's balance.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: I need to figure out how many sisters Sally has. Given information: Sally is a girl Sally has 3 brothers Now, each brother has 2 sisters. If each of Sally's brothers has 2 sisters, and Sally is one of those sisters, then there must be one more sister besides Sally.

    DeepSeek R1: Sally has 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. Since Sally is one sister, there must be one more sister to make the total number of sisters each brother has equal to 2. Therefore, Sally has 1 sister. Answer: Sally has 1 sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Claude Sonnet 4.5: Contract Analysis: Exploitable Clauses & Recommended Modifications This contract is heavily one-sided and contains multiple provisions that expose the contractor to significant legal and financial risk. Here's a detailed analysis: 🚨 CRITICAL ISSUES 1.

    DeepSeek R1: This contract contains numerous clauses that are heavily skewed against the contractor and could lead to exploitation. Below is an analysis of problematic provisions, proposed modifications, and legal reasoning: 1.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Claude Sonnet 4.5Claude Sonnet 4.5

2001: A Space Odyssey

1968

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka

Amsterdam

Netherlands

Portal 2

Shooter, Puzzle

DeepSeek R1DeepSeek R1

The Godfather

1972

The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the edge: newer, bigger context window. Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins 3 categories, Reasoning by the widest margin. DeepSeek R1 costs 6.8x less per token.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek R1 compared across 43 shared prompts
SpecClaude Sonnet 4.5DeepSeek R1
Input price$3/M tokens$0.55/M tokens
Output price$15/M tokens$2.19/M tokens
Context window200K tokens128K tokens
WeightsClosedOpen
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2025Feb 2025
SWE-bench Verified77.2%49.2%
At 10M a month$30.00$30.00$5.50$5.50
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it5 hosts
Claude Sonnet 4.54 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Amazon Bedrock$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·100% up
  • Azure AI Foundry$3.00 in·$15.00 out·200k·100% up
  • Anthropic$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·100% up
  • Google Vertex AI$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·98.6% up
DeepSeek R11 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • NNovitafp8$0.70 in·$2.50 out·64k·99.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek R1?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is developed by Anthropic while DeepSeek R1 is developed by DeepSeek. Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a 200K token context window vs DeepSeek R1's 128K. You can compare their actual outputs across 43 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or DeepSeek R1?

It depends on your use case. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek R1 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 43 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Claude Sonnet 4.5 cost compared to DeepSeek R1?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3/M input tokens and DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55/M input tokens. DeepSeek R1 is $2.45/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek R1 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Claude Sonnet 4.5 and DeepSeek R1 across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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  • DeepSeek R159 outputs, specs and price
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  • SubjectiveBench
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  • Research downloads
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  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
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